Check out the all new PLAY hub with puzzles, games and more!<\/a><\/p>\nTalking about the date, Worthy doesn\u2019t mince words.<\/p>\n
\u201cFive out of six is tough,\u201d he said of the six-week run. \u201cWill there be a big-name player that plays all six? I don\u2019t think so. Somebody\u2019s going to skip one somewhere.\u201d<\/p>\n
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That honesty helps frame what the modern Zurich Classic has become. The tournament understands its place on the calendar. It also understands its identity.<\/p>\n
In 2017, it shifted from a traditional 72-hole stroke-play event to a two-man team competition, a move that gave it a distinct personality on a crowded\u00a0PGA\u00a0Tour schedule and changed its trajectory.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy first year was 2012. We were experiencing slow growth with spotty fields through 2016,\u201d Worthy said. \u201cIn 2017, it was our first year at team play, and our attendance, our charity numbers, our field, everything, the team format kicked that into another gear.\u201d<\/p>\n
Players tend to echo that sentiment. Cameron Davis, who is playing with fellow Australian\u00a0Geoff\u00a0Ogilvy, pointed to the change in mindset the format creates.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a really nice shake-up from the usual on tour,\u201d Davis said. \u201cMost of the time you\u2019re trying to beat everyone\u2019s head in. It\u2019s very rare to have a week where you get to play alongside someone and you are hoping their putts go in and their drives go down the fairway.\u201d<\/p>\n
The format gives the Zurich Classic a clear identity, but it does not insulate the event from the tour\u2019s evolving economics. Signature events with $20 million purses and increased\u00a0FedExCup\u00a0points have reshaped the landscape, often pulling star players toward those weeks.<\/p>\n
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Before that shift, Worthy said, the Zurich Classic regularly attracted deeper fields than many might remember.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn our second year of team play, we had 11 of the top 15 in the world,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you look at the depth of our field before the signature events came about, we were really happy with where we were. Signature events come around, and it cuts into what we\u2019re doing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still, Worthy is not sounding alarms about the tournament\u2019s future. Part of that confidence comes from something that does not show up on a\u00a0leaderboard. Once players get to New Orleans, they tend to enjoy the week.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the format because a lot of our European players who have played, they embrace it,\u201d Worthy said. \u201cThey enjoy playing together.\u201d<\/p>\n
The city itself is part of the appeal. For players, New Orleans is more than a stop on the schedule. It is a place they want to experience. Conversations often turn to restaurants, hard-to-get reservations and what to see during the week.<\/p>\n
That matters for the title sponsor as well. Zurich has continued its support in part because New Orleans fits how the company entertains clients and conducts business. Last year, it extended its sponsorship through 2030.<\/p>\n
\u201cNew Orleans is a huge part of Zurich continuing here,\u201d Worthy said. \u201cWhen we can invite our biggest, most important customers, and get an immediate acceptance on those invites, we know they want to come here.\u201d<\/p>\n
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In that sense, the Zurich Classic occupies an unusual place on the\u00a0PGA\u00a0Tour. It is a golf tournament, but it is also built around partnership in multiple ways. There are the two-man teams, the relationship between sponsor and city, and the idea that this week offers something players do not get almost anywhere else.<\/p>\n
That may be the best way to view the Zurich Classic. It is not trying to be the Masters or compete directly with signature events. It is trying to be what it has become over the last eight years: one of the tour\u2019s most distinctive weeks, in one of the country\u2019s most distinctive cities, even as the schedule around it continues to make the challenge more complicated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"April 22, 2026, 2:01 p.m. ET The Zurich Classic is the PGA Tour’s only regular-season team event.Its unique…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":50929,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[6],"tags":[2312,29107,29108,683,689,30101,30102,30078,686,30312,696,29729,29730,688,698,681,51],"class_list":["post-53832","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-zurich","tag-accessfree","tag-sstssportsgolfpga","tag-sstsnpga-tour","tag-taggolf","tag-taginternational-sports-competitions","tag-tagmasters-tournament-2025","tag-tagmasters-tournament-2026","tag-tagnew-orleans","tag-tagoverall-positive","tag-tagpga-championship","tag-tagpga-tour","tag-tagrory-mcilroy","tag-tagscottie-scheffler","tag-tagsports-news","tag-tagstory-highlights-ai-enabled","tag-typestory","tag-zurich"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/116449849293168827","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53832","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53832"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53832\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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